Roberts, Michele - French Cooking for Two: Seasons of Friendship

Friendship has its own distinctive seasons, constantly changing and evolving, just as the years revolve. For example, winter need not mean bleakness and endings but can bring feasts amid the darkness. As the light becomes renewed at the solstice, so does love.

Winter recipes can celebrate that. Cooking for a friend, you can show your affection in a direct, practical way. Composing a menu to suit or intrigue a particular beloved person, you are demonstrating how well you understand and appreciate them.

The book is divided into four sections: spring, summer, autumn, winter. In each section you will find dishes, suggestions and menus appropriate to the season as well as ideas for particular seasonal moments, such as roasted tomato and aubergine baguettes designed to be packed into bicycle baskets for picnics. Talking tete-a-tete over a good meal adds an extra layer of pleasure, so these recipes are designed to be straightforward to follow.

You can concentrate on your guest rather than dashing between stove and table.